Since its inception in 1995, the Java™ programming language has become increasingly popular. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.) Java, which is an interpreted language, enabled the creation of applications that could be run on a wide variety of platforms. This ability to function across a variety of different client platforms, i.e., platform independence, and Java's relatively easy implementation of network applications has resulted in its use in endeavors as basic as personal web pages to endeavors as complex as large business-to-business enterprise systems.
As Java has become more commonplace, a wide variety of tools and development platforms have been created to assist developers in the creation and implementation of applications based upon Java as well as other programming languages offering platform independence. These tools and development platforms allow users to work with previously generated modules, thus reducing overlapped efforts.
However, conventional tools and development platforms have added additional rigidity into the development process. Conventional approaches often limit developers to modules or module types having code that is shipped with the tool or development platform. Thus, developers using conventional tools and development platforms are often unable to use customized modules or execution environments without significant additional effort.